->''"A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans, and a nice Chianti."''[[note]]In the original book it was "a big Amarone."[[/note]]-->-- '''Dr. Hannibal Lecter''', ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs''

Many {{Big Bad}}s, being more high-class than most heroes, like to sip some wine, usually red, while [[SlouchOfVillainy lounging on their]] [[OrcusOnHisThrone throne]]. This makes them seem [[WickedCultured refined]] and [[EvilIsCool worldly]], even when [[VillainsOutShopping relaxing]]. Heroes and more petty villains go for the more boorish beer, usually because they either can't afford wine or they have [[EvilTastesGood no taste for the stuff]].

Note that red is seen as a lot more sinister than white wine, due to its {{Color Cod|edForYourConvenience}}ing and general connotations with blood. When a vampire (usually richer and more refined, not one of the [[OurVampiresAreDifferent biker vamps)]] drinks red blood from a wine-glass, it invokes much the same imagery, and it's possible that villains drink red wine specifically to invoke the vampiric example.

Villainesses and neutral [[FemmeFatale Femmes Fatales]] also have the option of sipping white wine and champagne ("girly" wines), and seductively drinking from a tall flute glass and peering through the bubbles at the hero.

Another common variant is the Snifter of Brandy, preferably poured from a snazzy, cut-glass decanter.

If these type of villains suffer a VillainousBreakdown, it's likely that there will be a DramaticShattering of that glass of wine as a metaphor for the breakdown.

Subtrope of WineIsClassy. Wine, especially rare and expensive wine (and the ability to identify vintages of it by sight, smell, and taste), has become a cliche commonly associated with the Grey Poupon set. This can be used to indicate someone is [[AppealToVanity a snob]], or simply as a part of the background culture of the story. Further, red wine is more often an acquired taste, possibly hinting that one had the funds to develop it.

In some parts of the world (Australia, for example, and rural France and Italy), wine is cheap and has no class connotations. Also, the fact that a Chianti is chosen can be an important clue of a villain either not really as classy as they claim if they are in disguise, or that they really know little about wine; Chianti is not considered a high-class wine anywhere.

----!!Examples

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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]* Creed from the ''Manga/BlackCat'' manga had this once, complete with a rose inside of it, while he was [[SlouchOfVillainy lounging around in his evil castle]].* ''Anime/CaptainHarlock'': Harlock's trademarks are scars, eyepatches, and wine, in roughly that order. While he's more of an AntiHero, many of his actions could certainly be seen as unlawful and he's actually portrayed as the villain in ''Cosmo Warrior Zero''.* ''Anime/MazingerZ'' : [[MadScientist Dr. Hell]] and his lackeys are sometimes seen drinking glasses of wine.* Piedmon from ''Anime/DigimonAdventure''. He even got to keep it in the dub, with none of the dub's infamous FrothyMugsOfWater lines.* {{Subverted}} in ''Anime/EurekaSeven'', Anemone achieves the same imagery of drinking blood by eating marmalade.* Alucard from ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'', the trope image, is seen enjoying red wine on his throne more than once in the series. It is hinted it may be mixed with blood, or be blood entirely.** The Major is another fine example, except with a glass of champagne.* When Kanako of ''Manga/MariaHolic'' returns to her dorm room for the first time, she finds [[CreepyCrossdresser Mariya]] sitting there. [[spoiler: It's Bordeaux.]]-->'''Mariya:''' It's tomato juice.-->'''Kanako:''' That's definitely a lie!* Gakuto from ''Manga/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch''.* Evangeline of ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' does the "ungirly" version by often drinking red wine ([[VainSorceress usually in the most refined way possible]]). She is partial to several varieties of rare alcohols though (also drunk in refined ways).* Altena in ''Anime/{{Noir}}'' not only drinks wine but also owns a private vineyard. She also picks up the grapes herself, and is implied to at least participate in the making of the wine, as well. All and all, she's one hard-working BigBad.** Although to some extent this is a subversion, since the vineyard isn't used to demonstrate Altena's decadence or refinement, but rather meant to emphasize her [[DissonantSerenity preternatural humility]] and role as a [[TheHighQueen Madonna figure]]. It takes a [[ZenSurvivor special]] [[AntiVillain kind]] of BigBad to willingly do hard manual labour day in and day out, after all.* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'''s Giovanni sometimes is seen drinking some sort of alcohol, though it's never certain what sort it is.* Captain Napolipolita in ''Anime/ProjectAKo'' is invariably seen with a glass of wine. When she can't get any, she goes into instant withdrawal and [[MoreDakka shoots up her own bridge]]. (It's a parody of ''Anime/CaptainHarlock''.)* Prince Diamond of ''Manga/SailorMoon'' goes so far as to hold his wine glass up to an image of Neo Queen Serenity, with whom he is infatuated, so it looks like she's ''sitting'' in the glass.* The Computer Society President from ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' gets to try this out while he's villaining it up in the episode "Day of Sagittarius III". It's okay that he's underaged, it's all just part of the DeepImmersionGaming shtick.** This is actually a ShoutOut to BigBad Leader Desslok in ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato''.* [[TheChessmaster Fei Wong]] of ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' spends most of his time drinking wine, looking bored, and letting loose a needlessly cryptic comment vaguely foreshadowing the next step of his plan to whoever happens to be listening.* Dr. Muraki in ''Manga/DescendantsOfDarkness'' (the anime) only got one scene where he drank red wine, but he milked it for all it was worth.** For the love of all that is good, please rephrase that.** [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Yeah, stroke the stem of that wine glass...]]* ''Anime/YuGiOh'':** Pegasus of loved to [[VillainsOutShopping drink wine and read comic books]], but the censors turned his wine into [[FrothyMugsOfWater "fruit juice"]]. Which actually works with his character because he acts childish for most of his on-screen time.** They referred to it as wine in [[Anime/YuGiOhTheMoviePyramidOfLight the movie]], however. (Wine spritzers, specifically.)%%** Also, Mai Kujaku/Valentine on a couple occasions.** Rex Godwin from ''Anime/YuGiOh5ds'' did it a lot too while discussing things with minions, and also once while making a deal with Yusei. (It wasn't identified as wine or anything else in the dub.)* [[BigBad Father]] does this in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. It's not wine, though, nor even blood, but ''souls'' [[spoiler: - from Greed's Philosopher's Stone]].* [[BigBad Dilandau]] from ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'' has a taste for red wine.* In ''Manga/DragonBall'', [[BigBad Frieza]] is seen sipping [[WickedCultured red wine]] (or whatever he drinks that looks the same) in a similar fashion in early scenes and flashbacks during the Frieza Saga.** Later on, his father displays the same behavior.* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', the character Inazuma takes this to the extreme, as he [[GenderBender (or she)]] carries a goblet of red wine at ''all'' times, ''even while fighting''.* In ''Manga/SaintSeiya'', the great Pope has a glass, but [[AGlassInTheHand broke it in his fist]] when he got upset. * The head of the committee after the protagonists in ''Manga/ChoujinGakuen''. At this point in the story, the heroes haven't met her face to face and she watching the fight from a button on the minions she sent after them. But Adam manages to guess correctly that she holding one just based on her condescending tone.* Dio Brando from ''Franchise/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' often has a glass of wine while reading in [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders part III]]; by then, he's pretty much just flaunting his level of sophistry.* [[TheAlcoholic Yuuko Ichihara]] of ''Manga/XxxHolic'' enjoys nothing more than tossing back beers, sakes and anything with liquor in it in the most booze-hound manner imaginable. That she's still creepy, imposing and pretty much ''omniscient'' at times, is a rather interesting contrast. Not to mention smoking ''an opium pipe''. It could just be tobacco in there, but still...* In ''Anime/ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman'' and both of its [[Anime/BattleOfThePlanets American]] [[Anime/GForceGuardiansOfSpace translations]], [[GenderBender Berg Katse]] was often seen with a glass of wine.** Egobossler from ''Gatchaman Fighter'' as well.* Daidoji (known as simply "Doji" in the dub) in ''Anime/MetalFightBeyblade''.* In ''Manga/TokyoGhoul'', it isn't uncommon to see classier Ghouls drinking blood from wine glasses. InformationBroker Itori runs a bar and is frequently drinking blood from a wine glass, while PickyPeopleEater Tsukiyama does so as part of the overall attempt to imitate fine dining while he eats. As a sign of his slip into AntiHero status, protagonist Kaneki is seen drinking blood from a martini glass while discussing business with Itori. * Vampires of ''Manga/SeraphOfTheEnd'' drink what appears to be wine in a wine glass, but is actually blood.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]* The Vatman in the ''Bloody Mary'' comics is something of an alcoholic... even after losing the bottom half of his face.* ''[[Franchise/TheFlash Flash]]'' villain the Top is an elitist who never fit in well with the other Flash villains. Part of this comes from the fact that he can taste the difference in red wines...* ''ComicBook/EmmaFrost'' did this quite often when she was an ''Comicbook/XMen'' villain. As stated about villainesses, she preferred champagne. Her tastes changed after joining the team, where her spirit of choice became whiskey out of a flask in tense situations, but she still prefers a glass of chianti when relaxed.* ComicBook/DoctorDoom has been shown lounging about on thrones or in throne halls with glasses of what one can only assume is a wine variant of one or other.** "Love a good wine... and a good war."* In ''[[ComicBook/{{Excalibur}} Captain Britain]],'' one of [[RealityWarper Mad Jim Jaspers]]' first scenes in the 616 universe involved him transforming white wine into red wine:-->He wants to laugh, but he feels too sad because the wine is wrong. It's ''white'' wine. He doesn't ''like'' white wine. He likes ''red'' wine.* Immortal caveman conqueror ''ComicBook/VandalSavage'' can tell the year and region of a wine by the sound of it being poured, and refuses to drink anything newer than 1,000 year old vintage.* [[EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor It is a sick joke]], of course, but in one ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' story, ComicBook/{{Venom}} pretty much paraphrases Hannibal Lecter's famous quote while ''anticipating'' eating Spider-Man's liver. (He had previously goaded the hero by saying he was trying to decide between the lungs, spleen, or pancreas; [[AxCrazy the guy is nuts]].)[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]* In one scene in ''Fanfic/ShadowchasersAscension'', [[BigBad Jalie Squarefoot]] is drinking Demon's Blood from a wine glass; this is the equivalent of fine wine to the aristocracy of Hell, like himself. (It is established early in the fic that devils cannot become drunk by drinking alcohol, and require magical substances to experience intoxication; lower-class devils drink other stuff like gughalaki, their version of whiskey.)* ''FanFic/BartSimpsonAttorneyAtLaw'': [[{{Slimeball}} Jeremy]] enjoys a glass of champagne as his plan [[spoiler: to destroy Alex's reputation on TV unfolds]]. Appropriately, [[ShootTheTelevision he throws the bottle at his TV]] in fury when his plan falls apart.* In ''Fanfic/OldWest'', the BigBad [[ManOfWealthAndTaste Dufayel]] is shown indulging in a glass of brandy several times.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]* In ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', there's a wineglass in the vicinity of Jafar, but before he can drink it Jasmine throws it in his face.* Ratigan from ''Disney/TheGreatMouseDetective'' drinks a glass of champagne while, indeed, lounging on his throne.* In ''Disney/TheBlackCauldron'', the Horned King [[AGlassInTheHand broke his glass]] when he decides to execute the clairvoyant pig.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]* In ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', Hannibal Lecter famously announces, "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti," before making a hideous slurping sound. [[note]]The choice of Chianti here suggests a minor bit of fridge horror: Lecter paired a mundane but enjoyable wine with a mundane but enjoyable meal. Though in the original book, he had "a big Amarone", which is what is actually recommended to accompany liver.[[/note]]* In ''Film/TheMatrixReloaded'', the Merovingian sips wine while holding court in the restaurant.* In ''Film/ModestyBlaise'' TheMovie, Gabriel (played by [[CampGay Dirk Bogarde]]) lounges with a glass of ''blue'' wine while dispensing his evil orders.* In ''Film/TheIsland'', CorruptCorporateExecutive Dr. Merrick is seen watching the Lottery in his private abode, drinking from a wine glass.* ''Film/JamesBond'' does this a number of instances.** In ''Film/FromRussiaWithLove'', James Bond senses something isn't quite right with [[TheDragon Red Grant]], who is impersonating a classy British agent when Grant orders red wine, specifically a glass Of Chianti... with fish and then asks for a white Chianti when the waiter raises an eyebrow; fish is supposed to be served with white wine but all Chianti is red. Bond remarks to him at gunpoint that [[NoTrueScotsman no true English gentleman]] would be so unknowledgeable about wine as to order red wine with fish or to ask for a nonexistant white Chianti.** At the end of ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'', 007 defeats the [[EvilDuo bad]] [[CampGay guys]] using his knowledge of fine wines. Earlier in the same film, he identifies the vintage of a sherry by taste. When sarcastically told sherry doesn't have vintages, he states that he meant the wine the sherry was made from. Possibly setting up Bond's superior knowledge of wine for later.* The BigBad in ''Film/RaceForTheYankeeZephyr'' spends half the time with a martini glass in his hand, whether traveling downstream in a rubber dinghy or watching his mooks beat up one of the protagonists.* In ''Film/DraculaDeadAndLovingIt'', Dracula says, "I never drink...wine. Ah, what the hell. It's good!"* In ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'', Landa pours himself a glass of chianti from a fiasco while questioning Aldo. It's somewhat ironic that he's drinking Italian wine while interrogating a fake Italian.* In ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}'', this is done with actual blood by the high-level vampire Bromley by draining a human victim's blood into a wine glass.* Lestat pours rat blood in a wine glass in ''Film/InterviewWithTheVampire'', but it's disgusting to vampires.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]* In the original novel of ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'' it was a "big Amarone" and not "a nice Chianti". Still a red wine from Italy, though. The change in the film was probably a case of SmallReferencePools. [[note]] However, in a bit of FridgeBrilliance Chianti is made in the area around Florence, where Lecter settles after his escape.[[/note]] * The titular Count in ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'', [[IDoNotDrinkWine does not eat or drink]]. He does however know enough about fine wines to provide Johnathan Harker with "a bottle of excellent Old Tokay" to have with supper.* Double Subverted in ''Discworld/CarpeJugulum'', where the human subculture of vampires are considered freaks because they file down their teeth, wear bright colors, stay up past noon, and [[IDoNotDrinkWine drink...]] ''[[IDoNotDrinkWine wine]]''.* Other than smoking Russian cigars and drinking champagne, ''Literature/{{Marzena}}'' is a big fan of ridiculously expansive Petrus, and we also have Livia who drinks grape juice in a wine glass.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Caleb. Heck, his evil lair ''is'' a wine cellar!* Lex Luthor from ''Series/{{Smallville}}''. In fact, most of the time you can clearly see the crystal decanter in his living room.* Adelei Niska sips on an unidentified drink in the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' episode "War Stories" while watching Mal being [[ColdBloodedTorture tortured]].* TheMaster in ''Series/DoctorWho'' has always been fond of quality drinks (and cigars, of course). He's shown sipping whisky in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E5TheTimeMonster "The Time Monster"]], wine from fine goblets in various Ainley!Master stories and glugging wine or whisky in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E12TheSoundOfDrums "The Sound of Drums"]].* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' promotional images occasionally feature Scorpius holding a wine glass of an unnamed alien vintage (in the images where he's not [[KnifeNut holding some kind of bladed instrument]], of course).* Vesper Abbadon and Silas Benjamin in ''Series/{{Kings}}''. Silas tests Abbadon's clarity of thought by having him identify a rare wine. "Chocolate, cassis . . . vines grown in clay."* In one episode of ''Series/RedDwarf'', [[ItMakesSenseInContext the imperial descendant of Rimmer's clone]] decreed the execution and immolation of the ''Red Dwarf'' crew, and ordered their ashes brought to him on a silver plate with a glass of chilled sancerre. The Cat is horrified.-->'''Cat''': This guy's an animal. Doesn't he know it's ''red'' wine with cold ashes?* Mads Mikkelsen's ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'' in the [=NBC=] series is much the same as his film counterpart, as a glass of red wine seems to be his [[TrademarkFavoriteFood favorite drink]].* In the ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' episode "The Wedding" where [[UnholyMatrimony Rita and Zedd married]], the two of them drank something that may or may not have been wine during the festivities. (They used wine glasses, but it was green and gave off a mist like that of dry ice; it was likely never identified because of the target audience.)[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]* Stephen Lynch's "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjoYQKEGdrw Beelz]]."-->My real name is Beelzebub, but you can call me Beelz-->I love to watch Fox News and then go club some baby seals-->Then I'll take a bubble bath and drink a Zinfandel-->Try to wash off that baby seal smell-->And then I'll make a toast to me--hey, here's to my hell...th!* In the ''Franchise/EvilliousChronicles'', the sin vessel of [[SevenDeadlySins Gluttony]] is a wine glass. So, yeah. [[BloodLust Not that Banica used it for wine all the time...]][[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]* A character from ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' whips a brandy balloon out for the sole purpose of swirling it evilly in front of Phoenix immediately after being exposed as a villain. What makes this particularly strange is that he pulls it out [[spoiler:in a jail's visitation room.]] * ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}''** If you steal from Dracula in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaCurseOfDarkness'', you will find that he drinks tomato juice. Now that's blackmail material.** In the final boss battle in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow'''s Julius Mode, Soma Cruz [[SlouchOfVillainy lounges on Dracula's throne]] while sipping a glass of wine as you enter. He dramatically tosses it to the ground before rising to fight you.** Soma is seen in a similar position in his bad ending of ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow''.** This is a shout-out to a similar scene in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'' where Dracula dramatically tosses aside a wine glass while expressing his distaste for humanity before ThrowingDownTheGauntlet and fighting Richter.** The scene is also borrowed for a boss fight in ''VideoGame/IWannaBeTheGuy''. [[spoiler: The wine glass will hit the hero and kill them if they don't dodge-- but what ''[[EverythingTryingToKillYou doesn't]]'' in this game?]]** And again in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin''. Dracula ''really'' likes doing this.** And the first game where Dracula does it is ''Castlevania'' for X68000, later ported to [=PlayStation=] as ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaChronicles''. Those maids must have been overworked to death.** {{Magicka}} has yet another shout out to this (among its 9001 shout outs) when Vlad tosses a glass of wine away just before the boss fight starts.** This even carries over to ''VideoGame/BloodstainedRitualOfTheNight'', Castlevania's SpiritualSuccessor made by Koji Igarashi, Castlevania's most famous head-honcho: His Kickstarter pitch video has him throw a wine glass, and the game's heroine, Miriam, is slated to have an ability where she does the same thing.* Fatman, the bizarrely hedonistic mad bomber boss in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', carries around a glass of red wine and drinks it ''as you fight him''. Needless to say, it makes a mess of his blast suit in the end.* [[http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/File:Amano_Exdeath_2.jpg This]] Creator/YoshitakaAmano concept art for ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' depicts the main villain, Exdeath, lounging with a goblet of... something. He's probably only doing it for looks since for one thing, he still has his helmet on, and for another [[WhenTreesAttack he's an evil tree]].* Jonathan Jones and Valentina from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' are both seen holding wine glasses with red liquid in them. Johnny will comment on his drink if you inspect it after the boss fight. It's apparently 100% currant juice. [[FrothyMugsOfWater Really.]]* Mr X does this in the bad ending of ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage 3''.* Duke Portius of ''VideoGame/WildStar'' is almost never seen without a gold-rimmed goblet of red wine. At the end of the "Meet the Dominion" trailer he crushes it while talking about the Exiles. Then calls for someone to get him another drink. "Something expensive."** He opens the "Meet the Chua" trailer by pouring a new glass, from the [[INeedAFreakingDrink look of him]] not his first glass. And to illustrate why he needs so much wine, at the end a Chua drops a ticking bomb in his (empty) glass.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]* Miho's character in the ''Webcomic/{{Megatokyo}}'' online game/backstory manages to play this as A Goblet Of Chianti. The line ("Ah, but there is still the wine...") and [[TechnicallyASmile the expression]] clinch it.* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' there's only one way to cap General Tarquin's most magnificently evil speech ever: [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0763.html a single smooth sip of his drink.]][[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]* ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick'' had a glass of dark-looking eggnog held in her hand during her second part of "Dreamworks Vs. Disney". While she's not [[AntiHero technically]] a villain, but she [[KickTheDog kicked Nella]] rather badly during that episode.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]* Megatron of ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' once convinced the Constructicons to switch sides by sharing some of his private blend of ''oil'', and was of course holding a goblet full of it in the standard fashion. The 'goblet' was a barrel twisted into the shape of fine glassware. Classy!* ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', Rampage said the second half of the page quote verbatim [[WhatCouldHaveBeen in the original script for his first appearance]], substituting "spark" for "liver".* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' parodies this. Cartman fakes having Tourette's, and is going to be on TV, and plans to say things on live television, and get away with it. When explaining this to Kyle, Cartman is sipping what appears to be wine, Kyle takes a sip from a glass and claims "This is apple juice!"* Discord from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' does this with a glass of chocolate milk while sitting on his throne after turning Ponyville into "the chaos capital of the world". While not wine, his mannerisms give it the same effect. Of course, since Discord's a nonsense-loving RealityWarper, he drinks the ''glass'' instead of the milk, which gets thrown away and [[MadeOfExplodium explodes]].* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode ''Monty Can't Buy Me Love'', Kent Brockman reads: "This new breed of fun-loving billionaire is a welcome change from the classic joyless miser, brooding in his cavernous mansion, grasping a glass of brandy with his thin, clawlike fingers and a superior smirk on his greedy, soulless face." Cut to Montgomery Burns sitting in his mansion, in that exact pose, glass in hand and uttering a reverberating "bah".* The first time we see Black Manta unmasked in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', he's eating a fine meal and sipping wine in his lavishly decorated private quarters. [[/folder]]----